都柏林三一学院Rhodri Cusack课题组在研究中取得进展。他们揭示了婴儿在2月龄时，其腹颞皮层已具备丰富的视觉类别表征。相关论文发表在2026年2月2日出版的《自然—神经科学》杂志上。

为此，课题组研究人员需要幼儿丰富的神经影像和应用先进的视觉计算模型的能力。在这项研究中，该课题组研究人员对100多名2个月大的婴儿进行了清醒功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，并在婴儿9个月大时进行随访。结果发现，在2月龄时，高级视觉皮层已存在类别结构。这早于类别结构在外侧视觉皮层的出现，表明类别表征的发展并非严格的层级递进模式。一个深度神经网络模型与婴儿的表征几何结构相吻合，表明构成婴儿类别模板的特征包含多种复杂度，并且可以从视觉输入的统计规律中习得。他们的研究结果揭示了2月龄婴儿腹侧视觉皮层已具备复杂功能，并描绘了类别感知能力的早期发展轨迹。

研究人员表示，人类大脑中视觉分类的基础是什么？虽然婴儿注视行为是显性分类发展的特征，但它不能衡量神经表征或区分潜在的机制。

附：英文原文

Title: Infants have rich visual categories in ventrotemporal cortex at 2months of age

Author: ODoherty, Cliona, Dineen, ine T., Truzzi, Anna, King, Graham, Zaadnoordijk, Lorijn, Harrison, Keelin, DArcy, Enna-Louise, White, Jessica, Caldinelli, Chiara, Holloway, Tamrin, Kravchenko, Anna, Diedrichsen, Jrn, Tarrant, Ailbhe, Byrne, Angela T., Foran, Adrienne, Molloy, Eleanor J., Cusack, Rhodri

Issue&Volume: 2026-02-02

Abstract: What are the foundations of visual categories in the human brain Although infant looking behavior characterizes the development of overt categorization, it cannot measure neural representation or distinguish the underlying mechanism. For this, we need rich neuroimaging from young infants and the capacity to apply advanced computational models of vision. In this study, we conducted an awake functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of more than 100 2-month-old infants, with follow-ups at 9months, finding that categorical structure is present in high-level visual cortex from 2months of age. This precedes its emergence in lateral visual cortex, suggesting non-hierarchical development of category representations. A deep neural network model aligned with infants’ representational geometry, indicating that the features comprising infants’ category template span a range of complexities and can be learned from the statistics of visual input. Our results reveal the existence of complex function in ventral visual cortex at 2months of age and describe the early development of category perception.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02187-8

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02187-8